entranceway | OPINION } from Images May Disturb You, the Blog of Georgia Mason, entry #2

If there's one thing I've learned about Wonderland in the weeks that I've been forced to start calling it home: it's that it lies to you. But so do lots of people, right? Everyone has a reason to lie. Some people lie to hurt other people, but some people lie out of kindness. Some people try to protect you with comforting falsehoods. How do we know that Wonderland isn't lying for our own good? I can't tell you that. I don't know Wonderland's motivations, if there even is any sort of guiding intelligence behind it and not just pure chance. What I can tell you is this: it doesn't matter. Lying out of kindness is just as bad as lying out of cruelty. Possibly even worse. Comforting falsehoods might be nicer in the moment than cruel truths, but I'll take the truth every time. Is it better to spare a family by telling them their dying child might get better? Or to allow them to cherish the time they have left? Is it better to tell someone their writing is good? Or send them an honest critique that could let them actually improve until you could say so without it being a lie? Is it better to lose the memories that have hurt you and spend a weekend in blissful ignorance? Or hold onto every iota of the pain that has built you and remember exactly why you fight? Lies won't take the time to heal you. Only the truth can do that. Wonderland is the biggest lie I've ever seen. I cannot promise a way out of this gilded, wonderful cage. That would be a lie, even if it's one I'd like to believe. I can only promise that I'll do everything I can to find the truth all of those lies are working at concealing. I won't quit until I uncover all the secrets Wonderland is hiding. Or until Wonderland gets tired of all the prodding and sends me home. Here's hoping, right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Having actually experienced one of these infamous events people were talking about has him singing a bit of a different tune than the last time they spoke, when he was borderline jealous of the whole Harry Potter thing he'd missed. That loss of everything that made him who he was, the scrambling of memories, twisting of everything he knew? It didn't sit well with him. At all.]

I'm getting pretty tired of liars myself. [Eobard, Jay...even Harry had lied to them for awhile. He's decided he should just distrust the next something-like-a-mentor that tries to waltz around STAR Labs on sheer principle. And he's not entirely sure how to feel about the fact that it's a place doing all of this now.] This place is finding it's way shooting toward the top of that list.

[A corner of her mouth tilts up and she nods.] I guess your first taste of events wasn't as awesome as you'd hoped?

[He pulls his lips into a line.] Yeah, you could say that.

I'm sorry to hear that. [She means it. She's not surprised, but it would be nice to be wrong about this place. Not likely, but nice.]

I get where you were coming from before better now. It's creepy. The way it messes with your head. [Despite the awfulness of it, Cisco's glad to be disillusioned with it already. The shiny optimistic thing really doesn't fit him like skepticism tends to. He'll leave the bright hope thing to Barry or someone more capable in that department.]

Very creepy. [And the worst part was how much happier she'd been--in Hogwarts, not Neverland. She hadn't had dead friends hanging over her or zombies trying to eat her or political conspiracies to untangle. It had just been her, Shaun, and the magic of Hogwarts.

But it was a lie, and it ended.]

Hogwarts wasn't as bad as Neverland. I'll give you that. But you lose yourself. In ways I'd like to never lose myself again.

And yet, with the track record of this place, you know it's going to happen again. Eventually. [Knowing it was coming didn't do much good when you couldn't prepare for it or stop it, though, did it?]

I know. I'll probably have to be a damn teenager again too. [And that she'd like to not happen too.] I'd really love to find a way to stop that crap. Everyone claims it can't be done.

[Everyone claims a lot of things.]

[He wrinkles his nose at that idea.] God, I'd really rather not. [High school was not a fun time or place, thanks.] Maybe they just aren't looking at it the right way. Or in the right places.

[Is that Cisco basically saying he'll help you find a way, George? It just might be.]

[She raises an eyebrow behind her sunglasses.] You saying you've got ideas?

Not yet, but I'm definitely willing to look into it. [He may need to pick the brains of some friends, and maybe some others as well, before he has anything like a concrete idea, but finding a way to stop these Events? Yeah, it sounds like a project he could get behind.]

Well, keep in touch if you find anything. I'll be compiling information until I have something worthwhile to report.

All right, I'll get back to you when I have something.

OPINION } from Images May Disturb You, the Blog of Georgia Mason, entry #2

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